Sango Genesis Event Reveals the Vision for Crypto’s Future in Africa

• 7 speakers at the ‘Sango Genesis’ event spoke about blockchain adoption.
• President Faustin-Archange Touadera announced ‘Sango Coin’, the Central African Republic’s CBDC.
• CAR presents $2.2 Trillion worth of tokenized natural resources, and invites investors to build the crypto city together.

President Faustin-Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic announced yesterday that the country would be launching its own CBDC, Sango Coin. The big news was revealed during the ‘Sango Genesis’ online conference, which was held on July 3rd, at 7 PM CET.

The All-in-One Sango App

Besides the surprising announcement of a CBDC, speakers at ‘Sango Genesis’ also revealed the development of the upcoming Sango app. The app will offer a range of features, including:

• In-app coin and NFT storage;
• Purchases of tokenized land, both digital and physical;
• Tax payments and interaction with government services;
• In-app voting on government elections for citizens.

“Gold served as the engine of our civilization for ages!”, exclaimed President Touadera, marking the opening of the Sango project, and referring to Bitcoin (BTC) as “digital gold”—the power plant of modern civilization.

A Multidimensional Approach to the Future

One speaker at the online ‘Sango Genesis’ event, tech developer Yannick Dols, highlighted the lack of trust in modern society, and how blockchain can help solve this crucial problem. As blockchain technology is decentralized, trust is computer generated, and global. “The collective brain with coded trust and logic might help fight corruption if adopted properly,” explained Mr. Dols.

This concept was further affirmed by tech developer Jan Scheele, another speaker at the conference, who asserted that “blockchain is the trust machine”, assuring attendees that the technology is powerful enough to “to bring trust back to society”. Scheele also underlined that there are currently 2.3 billion people in the world with no access to the traditional financial infrastructure.

Finally, Scheele offered a great example of blockchain adoption in developing countries, citing the fact that Coins.ph, the biggest decentralized app in the Philippines, has helped locals take control of their financial freedom.

Tokenization of Natural Resources to Arouse Interest

The next speaker of the Sango conference, Mr. Raymond Mbitikon, the minister of natural resources for CAR, cut straight to the point: “[the] Central African Republic is a virgin country that is waiting to be explored”. The minister estimates the value of the natural resources in the country to be worth of 2.2 Trillion, spanning 32 different minerals, including the following:

• Limestone
• Coltan
• Copper
• Cobalt
• Uranium
• Graphite

The country is in the process of tokenizing the natural resources, and integrating them into the Sango app.

A Step-by-Step Approach to Digital Well-Being

A particularly interesting idea presented by the speakers at the Sango conference speakers was a step-counting well-being app that rewards users. It may not sound like something revolutionary, but the concept was explained to revolve around the provision of discounts on health insurance and tax reductions relative to how much effort a person puts into staying healthy.

Finally, Jan Scheele posited that the Sango project should be considered in the same manner as the evolution of the Apple iPhone. Nobody predicted how crucial iOS would become, just as Bill Gates had a hard time explaining what the internet would be useful for on a late night show back in 1995.

Why You Should Care

Many national leaders have expressed interest in implementing crypto and blockchain technology, such as El Salvador’s crypto-loving President Nayib Bukele, who made Bitcoin a legal tender in the Central-American state in September 2021. CAR has since become the second country to install Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender.

The Digitization of government services has brought many advantages, for instance, Estonia now has more startups per person than Silicon Valley due to its e-governance—simply because it takes an inconsequential matter of minutes to set up a business. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims that “the virtual economy is going to be as huge as the real world economy by 2030”, hinting at a bi-dimensional lifestyle that society is heading towards.